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This is a transcript of a short (3m51s) interview with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia. The interviewer is Pat Mitchell, President of the Paley Center for Media. I couldn't catch some of the words so would appreciate any corrections (thanks to susanreads for some suggestions which I've edited in).

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[applause]

[Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (EJS) is a black woman in her early seventies wearing loose, light-coloured clothing including a headscarf and a striped sash over one shoulder. Pat Mitchell (PM) is a blonde white woman in her late sixties wearing more tailored clothing. They sit on a small stage in two upright chairs angled together, in front of a closed brown curtain and a large flatscreen displaying "TED" in red letters on a black background. An audience is visible in front of the stage.]

PM: Many people have asked you the question, well, President Sirleaf, do you approach any challenges differently because you are a woman leader?

EJS: If there's anything that's different, perhaps, it's the extra sensitivity, perhaps, that a woman brings to it, I mean, when I stress girls' education, I'm sometimes challenged by [unclear - that in?] saying, you know, why girls' education, because, education should belong to all, girls and boys, but as a woman who knows that women have been disadvantaged, and young girls in situations of poverty, where there's not enough resources to send everybody to school, the boy gets the preference, 'cause the boy's seen as the breadwinner, not the family, and so as a woman I can demand that, and say, this is what the emphasis gonna be, I wanna make sure that girls go to school. And just being concerned about humankind, I think, the welfare of people, I think a woman tends to be much more sensitive to that type of thing... I think our responses then are likely to concentrate more on responding to the needs of people. Certainly a woman is not going to be spending resources buying guns, and fighting wars. [laughter from both EJS and audience]

PM: How do you feel about being called the "Iron Lady of Africa"? [laughter from audience]

EJS: Well, I'm, you know, post-conflict country, you know, where men are ferocious, so we have to tell them something to scare them too. [more laughter from audience] But you notice that it's balanced by the "Ma Ellen" and the grandmotherly role comes out when I'm dealing with children and, and issues, but when we want to make people know that we, you know, we're not weak, we can take strong decisions and take strong action, then we can fall back on the Iron Lady characterisation, and send a signal out there: "Don't forget [unclear - who we are? where we are?]"

PM: With women leaders there's always that balance, isn't there, finding the balance between the toughness and the ability to make the tough decisions and to be tough when you want, and the grandmother and the sensitivity and the love, and you seem to have found the balance.

EJS: That's so true. I think that's what makes a woman special. That they can find this balance, and maintain it, and succeed in keeping it measured. So, Africa—

PM interrupts: Do you find it's an everyday challenge to keep that balance?

EJS: Yes, you do. Every decision. Every challenge. Every obstacle, every success.

PM: People ask you, could you have accomplished more had you been born a man? And you say no, you'd have accomplished less. Could you explain that?

EJS: Being a woman and going through what I went through, sort of set me apart, and that enabled me to achieve, you know, what I've achieved, so in a way I've been, I've been lucky, I've been a victor of circumstances [emphasises the word "victor", smiles to indicate a joke, laughter from audience answered by laughter from EJS]. So.

PM: Thank you so much, Madam President.

EJS: Thank you [they shake hands, applause from audience].

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